Romanian IT companies, a smart choice for software outsourcing

This article gives you seven reasons to choose a Romanian IT company as your outsourcing partner for software projects and a very brief overview of the IT sector in Romanian.

Cultural affinity

If you operate your company from a developed country in North America or Western Europe you will find in Romania a cultural affinity that leaves no room for communication or behavioral barriers. Romania’s membership to the European Union since January 1st, 2007 gave its citizens plenty of time and opportunities to experience the Western lifestyle and bring home new habits and ideas. In addition, Romania has been an active player in the European cultural landscape for centuries, with only a few decades of isolation imposed by the communism regime. The traditions passed on through generations combined with the abundance of online information and the quick adoption by the young generation of the modern ways closed almost all the cultural gaps Romania had with the developed world during communism.

Broad expertise

The Romanian IT field experienced a spectacular evolution since the early 1990s, when the first private IT companies were established in Romania. Until now, most of the players have been involved mainly in software outsourcing for clients from countries like the USA, UK, Germany, Finland, Austria or Switzerland. By getting exposed to a wide variety of projects, for different markets and industries, these companies gradually became real masters in remote software development. Finding Romanian IT companies that can tackle almost any type of software project, regardless of the functional and technical requirements, may prove easier than you would expect. Over twenty years of evolution gave the Romanian providers plenty of time to diversify their portfolios, learn how to meet the needs of the most demanding clients and to streamline their processes.

Engineering culture

Several decades of focus on sciences in the Romanian curricula explain our affinity for mathematics, physics and computer programming. This situation led to an unusually high proportion of talented scientists, of which software developers take a high share. A glance at the IT landscape in Bucharest, Romania’s capital, proves how prized our engineers are by foreign companies, including leading multinationals like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe or Amazon. Hundreds of foreign companies have been opening development centers in Romania over the last decades. In major academic centers like Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Iasi the battle for talent has become so fierce that many local software houses had to open offices in smaller cities to keep up with the increasing demand.

Large supply of talented developers

According to Brainspotting, a labor market research firm, Romania is among the top 10 countries globally in the number of certified IT specialists. There are 95,000 such specialists in the country, of whom about half are software developers, one of the highest percentage in the world, as Romania only has 20 million people. Romania’s IT workforce is expected to triple by 2020 fueled by the high demand for Romanian IT talent and the enticing salaries software houses are paying in a country with one of the lowest average salary in Europe. Universities have been adjusting to this trend by enrolling ever more students in IT related departments, while Romanian companies invest in initiatives meant to open the appetite of high school students for IT. Hence, it is highly likely for you to find in Romania the best software developers in the world for a long time.

Intellectual property handled professionally

By becoming a EU member in 2007, Romania made a firm commitment to adhere to the EU legislation on Intellectual Property and Personal Data Protection. Like with any other major transformation, the road from promise to fact took years. Together with the legislation, mature Romanian IT companies have now reached a stage where they can meet even the toughest expectations regarding IP protection. Any Non Disclosure, Confidentiality and Intellectual Protection agreement you sign with a Romanian IT company is opposable in the Romanian courts and guarantees you full protection. As most companies take such agreements seriously, the likelihood of a breach is close to zero.

Convenient time zone and location

Romanian IT companies are located in cities that have their own airports and academic centers or very close to such cities. Major cities in Europe like London, Frankfurt or Munich are no more than 3 hours away from Romanian airports in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara and Iasi. While direct flights have shortened travel duration, the elimination of visa requirements within the European Union and Switzerland has made it really convenient for companies in Western Europe to work with Romanian IT companies. Romania’s time zone is another incentive for customers in Western Europe, with whom Romania has an overlap of 6 to 8 hours. Even companies in North America find it worth working with Romanian companies, despite the 7 to 9 hour time zone difference. For such customers, Romanian IT companies sometimes shift their business hours to maintain at least a 2 hour overlap.

State of the art IT infrastructure

Contrary to what one might expect, Romania, a country with an obsolete but rapidly improving road transportation system, enjoys one of the best IT infrastructures in Europe. Furthermore, Romanian IT companies have been investing heavily in their own data centers and local area networks, taking their infrastructures to levels that can satisfy even clients producing advanced and top secret solutions, like those for the military sector.

The IT sector in Romania

According to an article from businessmagazin.ro, over 14,000 IT companies were registered in 2014 in Romania, of which 48% in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca. The total number of specialists working in IT in Romania reached 110,000 in 2017. Bucharest, together with the Cluj, Iasi and Timis counties accounted for 73% of the local IT specialists in 2014. The main IT hubs in Romania are București, Cluj-Napoca, Iași and Timișoara, followed by Sibiu and Brașov. Craiova, Constanța, Galați, Pitești, Ploiești and Târgu Mureș are some of the IT centers that foreign companies have been looking upon with increased interest lately. The main difference between the main IT hubs and the rest is than in second tier cities you can find mainly small and medium sized IT companies, while the heavy weights are almost all located in top tier cities like Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca. There are over 100 IT companies with more than 200 employees in Romania at the time.

All these statistics make it obvious that Romania is a good place to start looking for your long term IT partner.